Though promoters frown upon playing in one place too often, I just like playing live. Insignificant is that I may be playing in the same "market" too often. I adjusted to living in Phoenix by finding all the coffee shops with music, and I've almost played at all of them. Besides my steady gig on the first Saturdays at Xtreme Bean in Tempe, I get to play once or twice a year at some of the other acoustic venues in the Valley - The Paisley Violin, Fiddler's Dream, Mama Java's, and Mighty Cup n' Spoon among others. If you want to perform all the time, Phoenix is a great place to play out every weekend and have a different audience at each show. There is a scene here, and it's not too intense so you have people taking themselves really seriously.
Last year hitting the road gave me a song called "Hit the Road." I wrote it the day I left for Tucson to play at a bar called Plush. I played it that night and the following weekend in Phoenix and Santa Monica, then later in June I was playing it in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah. Getting to travel always gives you some time to soul search and develop a song or two, but it can also be more trouble than it's worth - sleeping in cars, days without showers, coming home with less money than you had when you left town. If playing closer to home means I can still drive back after the show and get a good night's sleep in my bed, that is an advantage I will gladly take - I'll have way more energy the next day to do what I need to do.
I'm of the school that bands (or solo performers as I go) should play locally enough to develop a fan base and then once they get good press and can draw good crowds that's when they start to branch out and play regionally. These days I see the opposite - bands that tour nationally as if there new album is good enough to be successful in any city. That approach will hardly ever work because you don't get a chance to repeat the success you have in one city if you're halfway across the county a month later.
Still there should be a happy medium of being able to play not just in your hometown, expanding little by little to reach other audiences. After all, with the Internet available as a marketing tool you can get the word out anywhere you want. I have friends all over the place, but fans all over? Well, if you like chill acoustic music, I consider you a fan. And eventually the road is the ticket - it's where I'd always see myself if I could do it right. When the opportunity comes to get back out there and perform in other cities it really doesn't get more exciting than that. With a new album now scheduled for release in December, maybe next year will create some of that opportunity. Right now I'm in Phoenix in the balance, m.o. unchanged, playing live.
